


(Dreadful) Songs About Summer

by tanktrilby



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: High School, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6765475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tanktrilby/pseuds/tanktrilby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Falling in love with Gakushuu is like having all the wrong dreams come true.</p>
            </blockquote>





	(Dreadful) Songs About Summer

While he’s in hospital, Karma dreams.

He dreams of Koro-sensei and being led around an empty house -his house- barefoot. Sensei is tall, too tall to see his face properly, but the tentacle winding around Karma’s wrist is gentle and familiar. They go into all the rooms they keep locked up when his parents aren’t home, guest rooms and Father’s study and finally, Karma's parents' bedroom. Everything seems cold and alone, the evening light coming in at miserable angles and casting deep shadows. He doesn’t like looking at it; tries to pull away, but another of Sensei’s tentacles comes and ruffles his hair.

He dreams of Gakushuu, too. It’s a recurring dream where the two of them are sitting on the edge of a building in the rain. Karma doesn’t remember ever being afraid of slipping in the real world, but it works differently here; he finds himself terrified- holding still and breathing in quick, shallow breaths. He’s about to shuffle back to firmer ground when Gakushuu stands up without warning.

“Trust me,” he says, as Karma struggles to speak, to scream. “I’ve done this my whole life.” And he jumps. Karma screams his name, repeatedly. _Gakushuu!_ He doesn’t hear. His shoes have left the edge of the roof even as Karma lunges. Karma shouts again: _Gakushuu! Gakushuu!_

All along, he’s aware that it’s a bad dream. That he’ll wake up and it’ll be over and forgotten, nothing more than the taste of his friend’s name in his mouth. Back to normal.

It doesn’t work out that way. When he wakes up, he feels like he’s dead. None of his limbs seem to work, and neither does his brain. He has a deep headache that feels like a bad tooth, throbbing and rotting his head from the inside. And of course, he’s in hospital.

His minuscule movements catch the attention of his aunt, who appears at his side. She’s a surgeon. This must be her hospital, then, though Karma can’t imagine what made him need surgery.

She tells him, “Oh thank goodness,” and she looks like she’s been crying. “Karma, dear child. We thought we lost you.”

 _To what,_ he wonders. He tries to get his rusted, aching mind to work. The last thing he remembers is-

_Asano Gakuho, the legacy of greatness that he plans on handing down to his son-_

_Worthless trash, abandoned by his own family-_

_Never could save anyone couldn’t get anyone to stay-_

He jerks upright, or tries to. “Gakushuu?” he asks.

A nurse comes up to check his blood pressure. “How’s the pain, Akabane-kun?”

“It’s lovely, really unique,” Karma grits.

“We had no idea what was wrong with you, you know,” she tells him. “It looked like a common fever gone wrong, but you didn’t wake up for three days. The doctors guess that you were mentally exhausted and your system couldn’t cope with the pressure, dropping you into a coma-like state until you could forget whatever traumatized you.”

“Karma,” his aunt says softly.

Karma closes his eyes. _Student Gets Summoned to Principal’s Office, Goes into Coma._ Surely the negative press would be enough to take that bloodsucker down.

His hands are shaking.

“Gakushuu,” he whispers again.

“You were saying his name in your sleep, that’s how we knew you’d wake up,” his aunt says. “He’s a stubborn young man, your friend. Hasn’t left the hospital this whole time. Would you like to see him?”

“He’s…okay?”

His aunt looks surprised. “Why wouldn’t he be?” Her face twists. “Karma, did- did whatever happened to you happen to him, too?”

_It’s been happening to him his whole life._

Karma tries to shake his head, trying to process. “Don’t wanna talk about it yet.”

She nods. “Okay then. Would you like to see him?”

“Yes please.”

“Remember, call us as soon as you’re in pain.”

“Alright.”

He scrambles up the energy to ask before she leaves, “Why are you here?”

“Karma, I’m your aunt, of course I should be here,” she says. She sounds stunned.

“Alright.”

She hesitates for another moment at the door. She ends up not saying anything, and Karma hears her shut the door behind her gently and the murmur of voices outside.

When he comes to again, Gakushuu is reading a book on a chair on his left. He’s paler than the sheets Karma’s lying in. The circles around his eyes have deepened.

“Hey,” Karma says, voice raspy.

“Hey,” Gakushuu says. “You need some water?”

“I’m fine. Don’t believe everything the movies tell you, Gakushuu-kun.”

“Shut up.”

“Why are you reading at my bedside? What kind of care is that, hm?”

“You fell asleep on me,” Gakushuu says, closing his book. He looks at Karma. “You look like shit.”

“Pot, kettle,” Karma snaps back instantly.

Gakushuu shakes his head. “I heard you were at the Principal’s office directly before you collapsed.”

“Unrelated.”

Gakushuu hums, looking down. His bangs have grown out; at this angle, Karma can’t see his eyes. It unsettles him. He keeps remembering his dream, the way Gakushuu’s eyes had glittered like jewels before he jumped, the rain on his pallid cheeks.

“I’m leaving,” he says.

Karma blinks. “Okay? Bring me oranges next time. No, don’t roll your eyes at me, I’m serious. Your bedside manner is shitty.”

“I mean I’m leaving town,” Gakushuu clarifies. “There’s a network of people who’d die to get my expertise in certain fields on their side.”

Karma’s broken-glass brain fractures some more. “Okay.”

“It’s risky, but one thing I learned from our rivalry is that complacence doesn’t suit me.”

“Okay.”

“Would you like me to read to you?”

“I guess.”

Gakushuu begins. He’s got an excellent speaking voice, low and rich and controlled, and he even does the voices. A performance, the way Karma loves. A consolation prize. Karma remembers now, what he managed to lose in the haze before: someone sobbing when he was under, saying the same things over and over: _KarmaKarmaI’msorryI’msosorry._

Gakushuu is leaving because he thinks he did this to Karma. Karma looks at him and hates him. Gakushuu thinks Karma isn’t strong enough to stand against the Principal.

 _This is what he does,_ Gakushuu had said the first time Karma stumbled out of the elder Asano’s office, punch-drunk and reeling. _He takes everything that’s important to me and breaks them. If you’re as smart as you think you are you’d stay away._

“Don’t you dare feel sorry for me,” he snarls, discordant in the middle of Gakushuu’s lilting performance. “Don’t you _fucking_ dare.”

“I wasn’t going to,” Gakushuu lies. Karma despises him so much it takes his breath away.

“You should leave.”

Gakushuu has the gall to look disappointed. Karma tilts his chin away, unable to look at him.

“Okay,” he says. He hasn’t brought anything except his book, so it doesn’t make any noise as he gets ready to leave. And then he does; he’s gone, and it’s an incredible relief that he didn’t even try something as tasteless as try to say goodbye that it’s almost enough to make Karma break down crying.

Almost.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prequel to a 'verse where Gakushuu, high school dropout and underground information broker, has sensitive information and special agent!Karma has to hunt him down. find more [here](http://wallatile-qvibbler.tumblr.com/tagged/love%20is%20a%20laserquest%20'verse)
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
